Circuit breakers are commonly found in substations and are operable to selectively open and close electrical connections. Typical dead tank circuit breakers have pole assemblies that include first and second electrical conductors in associated bushings. As is known in the art, electrical power lines are coupled to first and second electrical conductors, and the circuit breaker selectively opens or closes the electrical connection there-between. A bell crank or other actuating assembly is associated with a respective pole assembly. The bell cranks are interconnected by a gang-style linkage so that all three poles assemblies are actuated at the same time by a single operating mechanism.
In shipping the circuit breaker to its installation location, it is desirable to remove the operating mechanism from the linkage so that the breaker can be shipped one truck. On such spring-open, spring-close driven circuit breakers, the pretension setting of a stand-alone open spring must be removed prior to removing the operating mechanism. This eliminates forces on a linkage which could injure the worker when removing the operating mechanism for shipping or servicing. However, when the operating mechanism is reattached, the factory pretension spring setting on the linkage is lost.
There is a need to provide structure to maintain factory spring pretension on a linkage of a circuit breaker when the operating mechanism is removed from the breaker.